Shinzu: Yes, this is a re-make. I think that it's much, much better then the other one, yeah? x3
Shuhan's point of view
Kouba's black side Kouba's white side
Normal
--
When things die, or dissapear, there is always something left over, something that can follow in their footsteps; weather it be a dog like Akamaru, a person like Naruto, a hybrid like Hitoshi-san, or even something in our own immagination.
Sentou, a silver haired girl, blew her bangs out of her eyes and looked to the left. Shuhan and Karuto were in the middle of a duel, both throwing kunai and cards and shrukien. Karuto had somewhat long, shiney silver hair and glasses. The clothes he wore looked a lot like a person Sentou had seen in a book; gray shirt with a blue chest, pale blue pants, and his headband for a belt. Shuhan was different in every way. He had spiked orange hair, a black bar going through his wrist, and a long black shirt that opened like a jacket. His pants were black with little red clouds at the bottom, and for a belt, he had a white cloth stitched into the shirt.
"Tetsu," Sentou said and looked at the blonde that had his back to her. He was leaning over something, most likely a bomb, and completely ignored her. He, too, had a uniform like Shuhan. But instead of orange hair, he had blonde hair with bangs that fell over his left eye. "TETSU!"
"Huh?!" Tetsu gasped and fell backwards, landing on his back. "Oh, it's you. What d'you want, Sentou, hmm?"
"I win!" Shuhan suddenly said happily. Karuto and Shuhan did a little bow, something the group of four came up after a spar, and stepped away from eachother. "Come on, Tetsu and Sentou!" Shuhan ran from his place on the hard concreat floor and jumped into a tree. The other three followed quickly, all of them knowing what would happen next.
Shuhan took his usually seat up in a high branch that looked down on all other branches. Karuto sat on a lower one closer to his, and the other two shared a branch that was perfectly parallel with Shuhan's. "Alright, I think I know what we're going to do now," Shuhan said with a grin. "Ever heard of the Akatsuki?"
"Yeah," Tetsu exclaimed and raised his hand. "They were a group of S-Class criminals!"
"Good," Shuhan said and stared at everyone with pale blue-green eyes.
"Why the hell do we need to know?" Sentou asked and messed with the white belt stitched to her shirt. "They're all dead. It's not like we can talk to them or anything."
Tetsu rolled his eyes and looked at Shuhan. "Is it true, un?" he asked. "Are they all dead?"
"That's what we're going to figure out," Karuto said and held up a card. "Because of all the information we get from books and criminal papers, I managed to make one of all the members including Orochimaru's team."
"Orowho?" Sentou asked.
Shuhan smacked his forehead. "Orochimaru is the founder of the Sound Village," he said and looked at Karuto. Karuto nodded and took a card out of his deck just to hold it up and whisper something. A puff of smoke surrounded the card and a few moments later Orochimaru's picture appeared on it. "His teammates were Jiraiya, Tsunade, and his sensei was the Third."
Sentou took the card and examined it, looking at the graphs and stuff. "Dude, this guy was a Sanin?!" she gasped. "Holy crap, why haven't I heard of him before?!"
"Because," Shuhan said mysteriously, "they don't want us to follow in his footsteps. I heard Naruto-sama talk about him, and all the Anbu that were in the room agreed not to let out any information about Orochimaru. We found stuff out at the library though, so thank God for that!"
"Exactly what are we going to do with this infromation, hmm?" Tetsu asked. "We can't leave the village just yet…" A light breeze blew through the trees, making the leaves stir. "Shuhan, what's wrong?"
Their friend suddenly looked tired, looked sad. "Sshh," Shuhan whispered quietly and stood up. He looked down to the ground and saw a shadow run by. He quickly made a hand sign and a few clones appeared, all of them with kunai in their hands. "Go!" the real one shouted.
The clones jumped down from the trees and followed the shadow. Tetsu, Sentou, and Karuto watched the scene from in the trees. There was a high-pitched shout and the clones came back, all dragging a silver-haired girl. She had a blue mask on, a scroll in her hands, and an ink brush in the other.
"Let go of me!" she hissed and tried to kick away.
The clones shook their heads and dropped the girl infront of Shuhan. They dissapeared with a puff of smoke and left everyone staring at the girl. "You, again," Shuhan hissed evily. "Why do you always rain on our parade!?"
"You know you're not supposed to talk about the Akatsuki OR Orochimaru!" the girl hissed back. "I could tell the Hokage and you'd be banished from this village!"
"So be it!" Shuhan snapped. "I don't care about this damned village! It's too dry, to hot, and way to bore-ing! Tetsu and Sentou, get ready incase there's a fight."
"Hai!" the two said in unison. Tetsu clapped his hands together as Sentou took out a kunai.
"Hitoshi!! Michio!!" the girl shouted as loud as she could.
"No!" Shuhan hissed and and jumped forward, putting his hand over the girl's mouth. "Shinzu, we've been over this. Hitoshi and Yuma will never come back to the village. Wanna know why?"
Shinzu nodded.
"They left the village two days ago," Shuhan whispered into her ear. "In just a few hours, we're leaving, too. We're going to ditch this place, get out of this God forsaken village." He pushed Shinzu back and watched as she tripped over a tree root. She jumped up, turned, and ran, probably going to go find Naruto or something.
"We're LEAVING, UN?!" Tetsu asked when Shuhan came back.
"Yup," Shuhan said simply and walked into the old, run down house nearby. Tetsu, Karuto, and Sentou followed their friend in, all of them beginning to pack the few things they had; a few shirts, kunai, books, and scrolls.
"Why are we leaving?" Sentou asked as they walked away from the home they've lived in for as long as they could remember. Although they didn't go to the academy, Shuhan had a little skill in the ninja arts and thought them. Now all they needed were headbands…
--
When Shuhan said that they were leaving in a few hours, he ment that they were leaving that night; the four didn't run through the village to get out, they walked slowly so they could save their energy. There were gaurds at the gates, and where there are gaurds, and those four, all hell will break loose.
Shuhan fiddled with something on the strap of his backpack before looking up again to see a baracade of Anbu. "Awwww crap," he hissed and stepped back.
Naruto stepped up from behind the group and glared at the group. "You will not leave this village," he snapped.
Shuhan leaned back a bit and looked at the sky. "I think we are," he said. "We've already lost Hitoshi and Yuma and I think it's time we go find them."
"As if!" Naruto hissed.
"Go go go!" Shuhan shouted and pointed forward. All of them ran as fast as they could and jumped over the Anbu.
"Get them!" Naruto shouted and turned around. Anbu were already chasing them, quickly catching up. As they threw kunai at the Sentou, she dissapeared in a puff of smoke and jumped off of a nearby building. "Clone!"
"The real ones are heading around the edge of the village," Neji said and ran up to Naruto. "They sent clones of themselves everywhere."
Naruto growled and made a hand sign. "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he said.
Instantly, the street they were standing on was filled with Naruto clones and they all jumped off to different parts of the village. One of them found Karuto, but he threw a kunai and it dissapeared. Karuto came to a halt a few moments later and looked at another wall, but this time with clones. He cursed silently and backed up, making hand signs at the same time.
On Sentou's side of the village, she was completely surrounded by Naruto clones and Anbu. "You're kidding me, right?" she asked. "You've gotta!" She focused chakra into her hand and lept forward, punching through as many clones as she could. Anbu came in and grabbed her hands, stopping her from moving at all. "LET ME GO YOU BASTARDS!!!"
Shuhan was doing quite good on his part. All the clones chasing him had dissapeared when he threw kunai at them, and by the time he neared the gate, few Anbu were after him. Why they wanted the other tree was a mystery to him, but he knew he'd have to go back and help the others. He looked into the sky when he heard explosions and grinned; Tetsu always did something weird like that weather it was blowing things up or making fireworks. "Good boy," he said.
"GET THEM!!!!" Sentou's scream echoed through the village. There were more explosions and a huge, skinney, cat-like creature ran past with Sentou and Karuto and Tetsu on it. Sentou held out a hand and Shuhan grabbed it, and soon they were running out of the gates of Konoha before any of the Anbu could catch them. The cat crouched down low, waved its tail, and pounced forward, quickly running back to normal.
"It acts like a kitten," Shuhan muttered and raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
Tetsu shrugged. "All my animals act like their still young," he muttered.
We continued on through the night, my little friends all being very quiet and obidient. The Anbu attack must've scared the daylights out of them. Quite literally too, seeing as it's was night when they attacked. Sentou and Tetsu must be terrified at the moment; Anbu were the reason that they tried to fight so hard. When I first met them, they were scared and always bossed around by the damned Anbu. When they finally left the two kids alone, they'd follow me around like little ducks. Didn't help that they were about five at the time; exactly 11 years ago today.
We tought them how to fight, me and Karuto; I can't remember much- my memory's fading- but I can remember when Tetsu almost blew up the whole house. That's why it looks destroyed; it'll probably be destroyed anyway, though. Sentou's also really great at Taijutsu. She's learned how to focus her chakra in different parts of her body so that it becomes stronger. Like a super punch, honestly.
I have a plan, a brilliant plan in my case. Although I can't remember where I came from- I litterally think they drugged me with some stupid drug that makes you forget things-, I have this longing to find somewhere special. I feal like a homing pigeon or something; yes, it's complicated like that. We're heading towards a river that our friend, Hitoshi, said he was going to. He apparently knew that we were going to go, too, because Konoha is hell and he gave us a map. Don't you ever want to go exploring when someone gives you a map?
Shuhan was leaning against the large clay cat by the time everyone else woke up. He was half asleep himself, but everyone else seemed to be fully awake and alert. The cat was also asleep, and, surprisingly, purring. "Tetsu, why are your animals literally alive?" Shuhan asked tiredly.
"Sorry, Shuhan," Tetsu said quietly. "Most of my animals are like that- all real and stuff. I don't know why, either, and they're all willing to explode."
"That's because their bombs. Bombs know they're going to explode so whats the point in worrying? Their soul'll probably move on to the next animal and be alive all over again."
"Seriously," Sentou said, "what's with you and the idea that everything always has something that comes after them? Okay, sure, like a persons kid could fit that, but animals and bombs?!"
Shuhan scowled and turned around, not looking at Sentou. He loved her like a best friend would love their friend, but she could be one huge bastard at times. Karuto began to say things, but Sentou ended up shouting, scaring the birds, and making Tetsu become really scared. "Oh shut the hell up!" Shuhan shouted. "Shut up shut up shut up! We've been through enough already without your constant yelling!"
It suddenly got quiet. No one had ever heard Shuhan yell at them like that. Sure he'd yell like that at Anbu and other random people, but never his best friends.
"Shuhan, are you okay?" Karuto asked and sat next to Shuhan. But now, Shuhan had his legs bent with his arms around the knees, looking like a little child; he was 16. Karuto was the only one who really cared to Shuhan. The others did, too, but not like a brother or sister or irriplacible puppy.
"Yes, I am," Shuhan muttered quietly. "I just can't take their yelling. It hurts my ears, it hurts my everything, and if they keep doing that, the damned Konoha ninja'll find us for good. They just need to shut up 'till we get to were we're going, that's all. Then they can yell and scream and fight and do whatever they want. I'll probably had earmuffs by then."
Karuto let out a long, deep sigh. "I know how you feel," he said and stood up, pulling Shuhan with him. "Come on, we're the oldest and can't let them see us like this."
Shuhan nodded and turned around, suddenly going wide eyed. "WHERE THE HELL DID THEY GO?!"
"I knew it was too quiet," Karuto mused and looked up. "They probably ran into the forest."
Shuhan looked at the sleeping cat and then made a hand sign. For some reason, Shadow Clone Jutsu didn't kill him. He didn't know why either; must be some weird bloondline trait or something. "Go find those little bastards," Shuhan told the clones.
"Hai!" they all said in unison and ran off into the forest.
Shuhan and Karuto followed instinctively, both filled with curiousity as to why they left. They didn't know the areas around Konoha or anywhere in the Fire Country; Naruto-Baka wouldn't let us out of the damned village. Yes, as you can tell, I hate that village now.
Both stopped when they heard a high pitched screaming. It was either Tetsu or Sentou, and Tetsu seemed like a likely choise; Sentou doesn't scream like a girl, sadly. Shuhan began running while jumping over logs, branches, and roots and ducking under branches and large cliff-rocks. Karuto was right behind him, his sleepyness getting to him. While running, the kid could barely keep his eyes open.
Shuhan came to a stop when he got to a large forest clearing. There was a girl with a rose in her hair and two small plants on her shoulders, ones like those prickly weeds you sometimes pull or accadentaly step on. She was sitting on Tetsu, her sharp-toothed grin looking evil, her face close to his. Farther away, Sentou was trying to bust out of a plant cage. It was extremely strong because no matter how hard the girl punched and kicked, it wouldn't budge or even dent. Now those are some extremely strong plants.
"Do you know what happens when people invade my territory?" the green-haired girl asked, her voice soft and gentle.
They could hear quiet whimpers coming from Tetsu; the kid was afraid of everything except explosions.
"N-no," the high-pitched voice of Tetsu replied, "w-what?"
"I eat them," the girl said quietly, her small grin getting bigger. They saw that it was only the white side that was talking. The black side, although it was grinnng, had a sad, pleading look in her eyes. "And you know how I eat them?" she continued when Tetsu shook his head. "I rip them limb from limb, letting them die a slow and painfull death…"
Shuhan heard a quiet 'eep!' and quickly ran up. The ground below him shook a bit and right infront of him a huge Venus flytrap came out of the ground. It opened with a sickening sound and he was soon staring face to face with one of the people he never thought possibe; Zetsu, the canibal. His breathing was hard and deep, but that came from his black side. His white side had the same pleading look that the girl did. "W-w-what are you?!" Shuhan stuttered, stepping back and tripping on a pointy rock. It dug into the back of his leg, turning his black pants from black to a dark red.
The girl that was sitting on Tetsu sniffed the air slowly and stood up. The rose in her hair was a deathly black color and was open. "Hn, looks like I should just kill this one; he seems hurt enough, and his blood smells wonderfull!"
"Oh please don't!" the other side suddenly cut in. "It'll be no good if you destroy him now!"
"Is she…arueing with herself?!" Sentou exclaimed. "Who the hell would argue with themself?!"
"Apparently them," Shuhan muttered quietly.
He pulled the rock out of his leg and stood up, a bit wobly at first. He turned tail and ran, quickly jumping into a tree. As if on cue, the hundreds of clones he made jumped out of the trees and tackled the girl. There was a scream from the girl and shouts from Zetsu, and in a flash vines came out of the ground, destroying all the clones. Zetsu turned to the girl and hissed something, or his black side did, and the girl looked at the ground.
"It's alright," white Zetsu called out (good Lord, I sound so racist right now). "Please come down. We're not going to hurt you."
"Pft!" the black side snorted. "Says you!"
"Yeah says me!" the white side snapped back. "Leader told us spacifically not to hurt him!!"
"And you always listen to Leader?!"
"Hell yeah!" white snapped back. "If we didn't, we'd be dead by now!"
Shuhan looked at his friends; Karuto was helping a terrified Tetsu off the ground and Sentou was still trying to break out of the cage.
"Okay," Sentou said as if she owned everything, "will someone let me out of this God damned cage?!"
"Damn," the girl hissed and waved her hand.
The vines went down slowly with the same sickening sound that Zetsu's flytrap had made before.
"Please forgive Kouba's behavior," white Zetsu said to all the kids. "She hasn't been around people much."
"Stop giving away my weekness," Kouba hissed.
"No no! I heard that these guys were good!" her other side insisted. "Dad talked about them once! I swear! Don't kill us, please!"
"Stop being an idiot."
The black side let out a sigh and looked at the ground. Shuhan could tell that a mean remark was coming so he walked over to Sentou and pncher in the side of the head, hard. Sentou began cursing in many different languages and then tried to punch Shuhan back. He easily dodged it and in a blur he puched the silver haired girl down, sitting on her stomach with a hand on her mouth.
"Say anything, Sentou, and you'll get worse," Shuhan hissed quietly.
Sentou nodded with wide eyes and stood up when Shuhan let her go. Black Kouba began muttering things to herself and then the area around them…and, well, let's just say this: if someone could die of quietness, they'd die right there.
"Heading of to find the old Akatsuki base?" Zetsu suddenly asked, breaking the silance.
"Yeah," Shuhan muttered. He slid a hand over the top of his hair and looked at the sky. "We better get going soon. Hitoshi's probably expecting us, the way he can hear things; probably heard Tetsu's explosions from miles away."
"The money freak's kid?" b-Zetsu asked. "Yeah, you're right, he probably heard you guys. I could hear it a bit, and Konoha is like, a few miles away."
"Kouba can go with you," w-Zetsu said. "She needs to get out more, maybe make a few friends. She also knows exactly where your destination is."
Shentou nodded. "We'd be able to get there faster you know," he said to Kouba. "And maybe you can explore with us."
"But we don't know how to get it," Kouba said. "There's this big boulder blocking the way and there's water everywhere and…and…."
Poor girl; I can't believe she hasn't been around many people. Who knew we'd suddenly become friends with an S-Class crimnal's daughter? But by the looks of it, she's going to be having mental break downs soon. What the heck goes on up there in her head? Probably nothing good.
And I don't get how Zetsu knew me. He seemed nice to us, as if we were his friends, and seems to know something I don't.
Later that day, as the sun began to set, I asked him how he knew us. He started argueing with himself and said, "Maybe when you're older. We promised someone that we wouldn't tell a soul who you were." And that just made me extremelly sad. I was hoping that Zetsu would be able to tell me who he was.
Shuhan and Karuto stood with Zetsu as Sentou and Tetsu went and talked to Kouba. The sun was setting, turning Shuhan's hair to a bright flame-gold color, and soon the first star appeared on the oposite side of the sun.
"Here," Zetsu said and held out an item. "Everyone insisted on keeping the seals in place where you're going. You guys wouldn't be able to break them, and bombs won't work. When you get there, press the button and the seals will break; it's only good for one use, so keep it with someone you know will not press the button."
"Hai," Shuhan said and nodded. "I'll be carefull so don't worry."
"Watch out for Anbu," Zetsu suddenly instructed. "I can hear Ninja not too far off. You better leave now."
"Alright."
Shuhan and Karuto turned to the other three and saw them staring at the trees, eyes wide. A huge white dog was standing there, crouched down, growling deeply. Zetsu shouted comands to Kouba and she stepped back against a tree, her skin and clothes suddenly becoming the exact shades and textures of the tree. The dog, Shuhan remembered, was named Akamaru, and where there's Akamaru, there's Kiba, and where there's Kiba, there's a million other Ninja.
"You've gotta be kidding," Shuhan muttered and suddenly cursed. "Tetsu!"
"Huh, un?!' Tetsu asked and turned around.
Shuhan put his hands ontop of his head and immidiatly Tetsu knew what he was talking about. Tetsu began to whistle a low, deep whistle that lasted about ten seconds. In no time at all, the huge clay cat was pounding through the forest, coming to an abrupt halt not to far away.
"Guy's we've gotta go, yeah!" Tetsu shouted when ninja began to appear from behind the trees.
The cat pounced forward again, letting out a hiss directed to Akamaru, and then Tetsu jumped onto it. He grabbed Sentou's hand and pulled her up as the cat began to back up, and soon it was running through the forest, Karuto, Shuhan, and Kouba right behind. Zetsu had dissapeared underground.